Everyone living within the walls was armed to the teeth. Even ten-to twelve-year-old boys toted AK-47s, eagerly waiting to reach the age to become mujahideen and fight the many enemies of their community. Not far away was a village where the farmers who cultivated opium poppies lived. This was the area's main source of income.
Warlord Durtami and his people called themselves Pashtuns, though outsiders had named them Pathans sometime nearly two hundred years before. The Pashtuns spoke their own language called Pashto and had a long warrior tradition that went back eons. This male-dominated society governed itself with a set of laws and rules they called Pashtunwali. This code of conduct had four main elements:
Melmastia--a requirement for showing hospitality to strangers. Many times Warlord Durtami ignored this stipulation. All strangers were potential enemies to this schizophrenic megalomaniac.
Badal--an obligation to avenge any insult, mistreatment or injustice. Durtami twisted this one to suit his personal needs. The fact that he started all the trouble he faced meant little to him. This, like melmastia, was more for strangers than his own people. *
Nanwatai--a requirement to submit completely to anyone who is victorious over you. The loser must beg forgiveness and admit fault, while the victor is expected to be magnanimous. This was the situation in which Durtami enthusiastically practiced badal when outsiders were concerned.
Nang involved sexual matters. A man must defend the honor of his family's women to the death. A lingering glance, unwarranted conversation, flirting or having sex with a woman meant death to the couple involved. The warlord was devout in the observance of this most important law. Sexual matters were the main reasons behind the bloodiest intracommunity conflicts, and no quarter was given or expected in these situations. It was one-sided where men were concerned, however. A raped woman was punished as harshly as her rapist.
The territory that Durtami controlled was part of Afghanistan the British had occupied while spending many long years fighting his Pashtun ancestors in the nineteenth century. This fierce resistance was the biggest problem Queen Victoria's soldiers faced. In desperation, they constructed a long string of forts to contain these native rebels, but this did little to bring the situation under control. Eventually, things got so bad that the Pashtuns were given complete rule over their own territory with a promise that they would be left alone. This didn't make the warlike people all that happy, and over the decades there were times when they rebelled in fury; fighting skirmishes with the British troops on many occasions. As late as 1937 the Pashtuns attacked and massacred an entire British column in one memorable battle.
WARLORD Ayyub Durtami and his chief lieutenant, Ahmet Kharani, had just returned from inspecting the compound redoubts, and settled down at a table in the warlord's private quarters. The warlord was a thin, wiry man with a pointed beard. His eyes betrayed his devious and suspicious attitudes.
Within moments three prepubescent girls appeared carrying an urn of khawa green tea, small cups and a platter of deep-fried vegetables called pakoras. They were at an age where nang did not apply to them. The warlord and Kharani smiled and spoke to them openly in a friendly, paternal way as the service was set out. The young females smiled shyly, pleased by the pleasant attention.
After the girls left, Kharani took a sip of tea. 'It appears that the attacks of the Taliban on the balloting centers in the cities will not stop any more planned elections.'
Durtami shrugged. 'I do not concern myself with such madness. Even if they hold a thousand more elections, my activities will never be governed by a crowd of idiot voters being given unlicensed liberties by the lackeys of infidels.'
'We are too far away for such activities to seriously affect us,' Kharani said, taking a piece of pakora and biting into it. 'The only thing that worries me is the formation of a national army.'
'Only fret about a large national army,' Durtami counseled him. 'Sparse patrol activity by a weak force will never harm us. They would be like fleas biting at our ankles.'
'We do not want the poppy crops threatened, Amir,' Kharani said.
'I will be able to provide all the necessary protection for the farmers,' Durtami assured him.
A knock on the door sounded, and one of the sentries on duty outside opened it and peered into the room. 'Hamid is here to see you, Amir.'
'Send him in,' Durtami ordered. He looked over at Kharani. 'I hope he has been able to drag some useful information out of that cursed prisoner.'
Hamid walked in, smiling broadly. He was a large, fat man, but the thick layer of flesh on his body covered solid muscle beneath, and he served as the warlord's jailer and inquisitor. 'I have broken Kariska, Amir.'
'Der khey--very good!' Durtami said. 'I thought he would have died by now.'
'He begs for death even as we speak,' Hamid said. 'Beatings meant nothing to him. It was fire that finally brought him to the point that he wished the torment to stop. Branding and hot coals loosen even the most stubborn of tongues.'
'What information have you?' Kharani asked impatiently. He both disliked and feared the torturer.
'When the man Ishaq snuck away, he promised Kariska he could get people to come here and fetch him,' Hamid said. 'They were to meet him at the village that was attacked by the Soviet helicopters so many years ago.'
'Why would Kariska help him sneak away from us?' Durtami asked. 'We knew they were friends. That is why we chose to question Kariska after we noticed Ishaq's absence.'
'Kariska promised to tell all he knew about the activities in this area,' Hamid said. 'It would serve the infidels well in working out a way to defeat us and destroy the poppy cultivation.'
'That makes sense, Amir,' Kharani said to his chief. 'The infidels and their lackeys cannot fully control Afghanistan until the warlords are deprived of the money made from heroin.'
'He said the people coming to get him would give him a number between one and nine,' Hamid said. 'Kariska would then say a number that added up to ten. That would prove he is the man they came for.'
'They would have to keep it that simple for the stupid bumpkin,' Durtami said with a laugh. 'When is this meeting going to take place?'
'At any time,' Hamid said, 'between midnight and dawn. No particular day was picked.'
Durtami smiled at Kharani. 'From now on, put men out by that old village every night between midnight and dawn. They will stay there until the infidels try to make a contact.'
'We shall begin tonight, Amir,' Kharani said.
Durtami turned to Hamid. 'You have done well. I will see that two goats are sent to your house.'
'Shukhria--thank you, Amir!' Hamid exclaimed. 'What shall I do with the prisoner Kariska?'
'He has had a rest now,' Durtami said. 'Go back and take him to death. Use that fire that he fears so much. Perhaps as he suffers under the torment he will ponder the terrible price of betrayal.' He turned to Kharani. 'Organize the group to go to the village. This is something that must be dealt with successfully.'
'I will pick only the best fighters, Amir,' Kharani promised.
Chapter 3
C-130 AIRCRAFT
OVER THE MID-ATLANTIC OCEAN
6 AUGUST
1800 HOURS LOCAL
LIEUTENANT Bill Brannigan glumly sat in the web seat just aft of the entrance to the cockpit. His mood seemed bad enough that the rest of the platoon, including his 21C and chief petty officers, avoided him. Any comments or questions directed to the CO were met with curt, near angry responses.
As their leader seethed in solitude, the other Brigands coped in their individual ways with the monotony of the long and unpressurized airplane ride. Most were sleeping, but the Odd Couple Mike Assad and Dave Leibowitz were deeply involved in a pinochle game while others read paperback books. A few simply stared at nothing, their eyes directed at, but not focused on, the bulkheads opposite them. The more pensive platoon members had their minds turned to girlfriends, families back home, plans for their next furlough and dozens of other matters important to servicemen on active duty.
Brannigan was in that gloomily pensive mood because of a deep personal problem. The time spent in Isolation had worsened this inner tension because he was unable to telephone his wife Lisa. Things had been getting worse between the couple. She was an aviator in a Prowler EA-6B squadron at NAS North Island, not far from the naval amphibious base the SEALs called home. Brannigan had met Lisa at the North Island Officers' Club
